JP2005131904A - Ink cartridge and inkjet recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an inexpensive and high-reliability ink cartridge which can realize a compact/light-weight printer, and moreover has a low possibility of contaminating hands with ink even if the user touches the cartridge in the ink cartridge attachable and separable to an inkjet printer with an inkjet head and a feeding mechanism for feeding the ink to the inkjet head. <P>SOLUTION: A liquid absorbing member is disposed on at least one face of the inkjet cartridge outside. At this time, a printable number of sheets is regulated by an ink amount stored in the cartridge. An absorbing member with the ink absorbing capability of an amount necessary for the printing is set inside. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an exchangeable ink cartridge containing ink, which is used in an ink jet recording system.

  2. Description of the Related Art There is an ink jet recording apparatus that lays out and prints on a printing sheet having a perforation as a printable area in the same manner as a silver salt photograph. This is a technique for obtaining a printed matter with no margin by removing the outer peripheral portion of the paper along the perforation after printing. However, with this technology, the user is required to remove the outer peripheral portion of each printed matter, and the load when printing a large amount is large. In addition, since the removed outer peripheral portion is immediately discarded, the load on the environment is large even when paper resources are consumed.

In order to solve this problem, there is an ink jet recording apparatus that uses a sheet cut to a desired size and enables full-surface layout printing without margins similar to the above-described silver halide photography. This is a technique for printing on the entire surface by laying out the printing area on the software to be larger than the paper width. Conventionally, ink ejected from the edge of the paper to the outside of the paper accumulates on the main body platen and contaminates the paper supplied later. By disposing the ink absorber at a position located at the paper edge of the platen, it is possible to lay out the entire surface without soiling the paper supplied later.
JP 2000-351205 A JP2002-086757

  This ink absorber is housed in the platen of the main body, and an ink absorbing performance of an amount necessary for printing in a period equivalent to the life of the main body is required. For this reason, for a user who frequently uses the printer, as the printer is used, the weight of the printer increases due to the ink accumulated in the printer body, which makes it difficult to carry. Further, even for a user who is not frequently used, an ink absorber equivalent to a user who is frequently used is installed in the main body in advance, so that there is an absorber which is finally discarded without being used. Furthermore, in order to increase the margin of reliability against leakage so that the ink accumulated in the main body does not leak due to posture differences or environmental changes, the amount of ink that can be absorbed is sufficiently larger than the required amount of absorption. There must be. For these reasons, it has been difficult to reduce the size of the printer body by reducing the number of absorbers in the body.

  In some cases, an ink absorber is disposed inside a replaceable ink cartridge, a predetermined opening is provided, and the ink is directly held by the absorber. However, in this case, the user may unintentionally touch the absorber directly from the case opening, and there is a possibility that the hand is stained with ink. Further, a shutter (6 in FIG. 7) is sometimes provided to prevent the user's hand from being soiled. However, there is a demerit that the processing cost of the sheet metal is necessary and the cost of the parts is increased.

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a small and lightweight printer that can be attached to and detached from an ink jet printer having an ink jet head and a supply mechanism for supplying ink to the ink jet head. It is an object to provide an inexpensive and highly reliable ink cartridge with a low possibility of smearing hands with ink.

  To achieve the above object, the present invention provides an ink cartridge that is detachable from an ink jet printer having an ink jet head and a supply mechanism that supplies ink to the ink jet head, and a liquid absorbing member is disposed on at least one surface outside the ink jet cartridge. It is characterized by being.

  At this time, the number of printable sheets is defined by the amount of ink stored in the cartridge, and an absorbing member having an ink absorbing performance of an amount necessary for the printing is disposed inside. This is sufficiently smaller than the volume of the absorber that has been conventionally arranged in the printer, and the printer body can be miniaturized. In addition, since the ink adhering to the surface of the absorbing member is quickly diffused and held inside, it is possible to provide a highly reliable ink cartridge that is less likely to stain the hand with ink even if the user touches the surface unintentionally. it can.

  According to the present invention, an ink cartridge that can be attached to and detached from an ink jet printer having an ink jet head and a supply mechanism that supplies ink to the ink jet head can be realized as a small and lightweight printer, and even if a user touches the cartridge, the ink cartridge can be used with ink. It is possible to provide an inexpensive and highly reliable ink cartridge with a low possibility of fouling.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing a first embodiment of the ink cartridge of the present invention.

  In the ink cartridge shown in FIG. 1, an ink storage container for storing ink is stored in a container including an ink cartridge casing 2, an ink cartridge lid 1, and a cartridge lower lid 4.

  In order to describe the inside of the ink cartridge of FIG. 1, the AA portion of FIG. 1 is cut, and the internal configuration will be described with reference to FIG. The ink cartridge includes an ink container portion 3 that stores inks C, M, and Y used in the ink jet printer. In the liquid supply system using this ink cartridge, a needle-like tube (not shown) provided in the ink jet head is inserted into the joint portion 5 and the ink in the ink container is led out to the ink jet head 101. At this time, as the ink container, a bag-like container that deforms in accordance with the lead-out of the ink stored inside was used. Ink is ejected by extruding the liquid in the nozzle by heat or vibration energy of a heating element or vibration element (not shown) arranged in the vicinity of the nozzle outlet. In this way, the cycle of filling ink is repeated intermittently after ejection using the negative pressure of the pump connected to the tank in the head as power, and the ink is sucked up from the ink container.

  The ink container 3 was prepared by bonding a film having a width of 32 mm, a length of 130 mm, and a thickness of 0.1 mm by heat welding so that the projected area of the ink cartridge was minimized. Each ink bag containing ink has a thickness of 3 mm. Inkjet printers perform recovery operations to ensure ejection reliability. Ink (cyan, magenta, yellow) is added to the ink capacity required for recovery operations and the ink capacity that can print 50 sheets of paper in this embodiment. ) Contains 4ml each. The ink used in the recovery operation is discharged from the discharge port (not shown) of the main body to the second opening 22 and is absorbed and held in the ink absorber 102. In this embodiment, the amount of ink that can be absorbed by the ink absorber 102 is set to 12 ml, but the present invention is not limited to this.

  On the surface of the cartridge lid 1, an ink jet recording medium made of paper with a base material having a thickness of 280 μm was attached as an ink absorbing member 7 so that the ink receiving layer was on the outer surface. At this time, the cartridge lid 1 is provided with a recess having a depth of 300 μm in advance, so that the absorbing member 7 does not come out of the cartridge, and prevents interference with the main body during attachment / detachment. Moreover, this recessed part was used as the positioning when attaching the absorbing member 7. The absorbing member 7 is used for printing in a range larger than the recording medium and printing without margins. This absorbing member absorbs and retains ink that has not been absorbed by the recording medium, and prevents deterioration in print quality due to floating mist. In this embodiment, the size of the absorbing member is 130 mm wider than the recording medium and 20 mm longer than the nozzle row (not shown), but the present invention is not limited to this. In this embodiment, a paper-based ink jet recording medium is used. However, a plastic-based recording medium may be used. The base material may be directly welded using the same material as the cartridge lid or a material that can be welded to the cartridge lid. In this embodiment, since the ink jet recording medium is used as the absorbing member, it can be easily understood that the ink absorbed in the receiving layer of the medium is less likely to be retransferred and dirty the user's hand. The absorbing member in the present embodiment is not limited to the inkjet recording medium.

  As described above, the ink cartridge of the present embodiment is completed by providing the ink absorbing member 7 on the outer surface of the ink cartridge containing the ink container portion 3 and the ink absorber 102.

  An embodiment of the present invention will be described.

  In the ink cartridge, an ink storage container for storing ink is housed in a container including an ink cartridge housing 2, an ink cartridge lid 1, and a cartridge lower lid 4. The internal configuration will be described with reference to FIG. The ink cartridge includes an ink container portion 3 that stores inks C, M, and Y used in the ink jet printer. In the liquid supply system using the ink cartridge, a needle-like tube (not shown) provided in the ink jet head 101 (FIG. 4) is inserted into the joint portion 5, and the ink in the ink container is led to the ink jet head 101. Is done. At this time, as the ink container, a bag-like container that deforms in accordance with the lead-out of the ink stored inside was used. Ink is ejected by extruding the liquid in the nozzle by heat or vibration energy of a heating element or vibration element (not shown) arranged in the vicinity of the nozzle outlet. In this way, the cycle of filling ink is repeated intermittently after ejection using the negative pressure of the pump connected to the tank in the head as power, and the ink is sucked up from the ink container.

  The ink container 3 was prepared by bonding a film having a width of 32 mm, a length of 130 mm, and a thickness of 0.1 mm by heat welding so that the projected area of the ink cartridge was minimized. Each ink bag containing ink has a thickness of 3 mm. Inkjet printers perform recovery operations to ensure ejection reliability. Ink (cyan, magenta, yellow) is added to the ink capacity required for recovery operations and the ink capacity that can print 50 sheets of paper in this embodiment. ) Contains 4ml each. The ink used in the recovery operation is discharged from the discharge port (not shown) of the main body to the second opening 22 and is absorbed and held in the ink absorber 102. In this embodiment, the amount of ink that can be absorbed by the ink absorber 102 is set to 12 ml, but the present invention is not limited to this.

  The surface of the cartridge lid 1 is provided with a recess having a width of 130 mm, a length of 20 mm, and a depth of 300 μm. Here, a 10 wt% aqueous solution of carboxymethylcellulose was added dropwise. Thereafter, the absorbent member 7 was obtained by drying at 120 ° C. for 10 minutes. This absorbing member absorbs and retains ink that has not been absorbed by the recording medium, prevents print quality deterioration due to floating mist, and absorbs about 0.2 ml of ink for 50 images of 25% duty. be able to. Here, carboxymethyl cellulose is used for the absorbing member, but polyvinyl alcohol, styrene acrylic acid or polyvinyl pyrrolidone may be used. In this embodiment, it takes about 1 hour to allow the carboxymethyl cellulose to absorb the ink and not transfer again. When there is a possibility that the user can quickly remove the cartridge, it is desirable to coat the surface layer of the absorbent member 7 with a laminated film further comprising an outer layer made of hydrophilic fibers and an inner layer made of hydrophobic fibers. The ink adhering to the surface of the hydrophilic fiber has a small contact angle on the fiber, so that it quickly diffuses from the adhering position to a wide range, and local excess of ink can be prevented. Next, the ink that has diffused into a wide range of hydrophilic fibers quickly moves to hydrophobic fibers with higher capillary force. This ink is absorbed by the absorbing member 7. This ink movement proceeds promptly and irreversibly. With the above mechanism, when the user quickly removes the cartridge, the possibility of retransfer of ink to the user's hand is reduced, and a more reliable cartridge can be provided.

  As described above, the ink cartridge of the present embodiment is completed by providing the ink absorbing member 7 on the outer surface of the ink cartridge containing the ink container portion 3 and the ink absorber 102.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 4 is a schematic perspective view showing the ink jet recording apparatus of the present invention. The recording medium 103 is transported in the ink jet recording apparatus, and the ink jet head 101 is scanned perpendicular to the transport direction. The ink cartridge 100 is disposed so that the recording medium 103 is always between the ink cartridge 100 and the inkjet head 101. In addition, the ink cartridge 100 is arranged such that the two first openings 21 of the ink cartridge 100 are respectively located at the end in the transport direction of the recording medium 103 and the scanning direction of the inkjet head 101. That is, the ink ejected to the end of the recording medium 104 and to the outside thereof is absorbed by the first absorber 11 located in the first opening 21. Here, a theoretical calculation of the motion of a droplet when a droplet with a radius a having an initial velocity v0 is flying in the air will be described. The density of air at 25 ° C and 1 atm is ρ air = 1.29e-03g / cm ^ 3, and the kinematic viscosity of air is ν air = 1.50e-01cm ^ 2 / s. Reynolds number R is characteristic length L, kinematic viscosity ν air, velocity v
R = L · v / ν Air. When v = 14 m / s is used, R = 1 to 20, which is sufficiently small. When the Reynolds number R is sufficiently small, an approximate solution (Stokes approximation) can be obtained by ignoring the inertia term of the Navier-Stokes equation. In other words, the air flow around the droplet
divv = 0
∂v / ∂t = -1 / ρ air ・ grad p + ν air Δv
Solve the linear equation For the movement of the droplet, the resistance force exerted on the droplet by the air flow is calculated from the above equation. Resistance force F is when the droplet radius is a and velocity is v
F = 6πρ air ν air av
It is represented by So the equation of motion of the droplet is
md / dt ・ (dx / dt) =-6πρ air ν air a ・ dx / dt
(The mass of the droplet is m, and the droplet is flying in the x-axis direction.) The solution of this differential equation is as follows: dx / dt | t = 0 = v0, x | t = 0 = 0
x = mv0 / (6πρ air ν air a) ・ (1-exp (-6πρ air ν air a / m ・ t))
dx / dt = v0 · exp (-6πρ air ν air a / m · t)
It is. If droplet radius a and ink density ρ ink are used instead of droplet mass, m = 4/3 · π a ^ 3 · ρ ink
x = 2ρ ink v0 a ^ 2 / (9ρ air ν air)
(1-exp (-9ρ air ν air / (2ρ ink a ^ 2) · t))
dx / dt = v0 ・ exp (-9ρ air ν air / (2ρ ink a ^ 2) ・ t)
Get. The initial speed was assumed to be 14m / s. When the droplet was assumed to be a sphere, the change with time of the position of the droplet (distance from the orifice) was obtained for each radius of the droplet in each volume. (FIG. 6) The relationship between the elapsed time t [s] from immediately after discharge (t0 = 0 [s]) and the velocity v [m / s] at time t can be shown by Stokes approximation. From this, the relationship between the elapsed time t [s] for each ink volume to be ejected and the arrival distance x [mm] at that time (x = 0 immediately after ejection) is derived and shown in FIG. The ejection speed decreases with the elapse of time, and at 1 m / s or less, the ejected liquid droplets float in the apparatus, and there is a possibility that the print quality is degraded when adhering to the recording medium 103. In particular, when a discharged droplet of 0.5 pl or more adheres to the recording medium, it causes deterioration in print quality that can be discriminated with the naked eye. Therefore, in order to prevent 0.5 pl of ejected droplets from floating in the apparatus, the ink cartridge is arranged in the inkjet recording apparatus so that the distance between the ejection port surface of the inkjet head and the absorber 11 is 3 mm or less as shown in FIG. ing.

1 is a schematic perspective view of an entire ink cartridge showing a first embodiment of the present invention. AA sectional drawing of FIG. FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of an ink cartridge showing a second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a schematic perspective view of an ink jet recording apparatus showing a third embodiment of the present invention. BB sectional drawing of FIG. The graph which shows the elapsed time and reach | attainment distance from the time of discharge. FIG. 6 is a schematic perspective view showing a conventional ink cartridge.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Ink cartridge cover 2 Ink cartridge housing | casing 3 Ink storage container part 4 Ink cartridge lower cover 5 Joint part 6 Shutter 7 Liquid absorption member 8 Multilayer film 21 1st opening part 22 2nd opening part 100 Ink cartridge 101 Inkjet head 102 Absorber 103 Recording paper

Claims (11)

An ink cartridge that is detachable from a printing apparatus having a liquid discharge head that discharges liquid to a recording medium and a liquid supply mechanism that supplies liquid to the liquid discharge head,
An ink cartridge, wherein a recording medium including a base material and an ink receiving layer provided on at least one surface of the base material is disposed on at least one surface outside the ink jet cartridge.   The ink cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the ink receiving layer of the recording medium contains polyvinyl acetal resin and silica fine particles as essential components.   2. The ink cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the base material of the recording medium is a plastic film.   4. The ink cartridge according to claim 3, wherein the base material of the recording medium is made of the same material as the exterior member of the ink cartridge and is melted and held mutually.   2. The ink cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the base material of the recording medium is paper. An ink cartridge that is detachable from a printing apparatus having a liquid discharge head that discharges liquid to a recording medium and a liquid supply mechanism that supplies liquid to the liquid discharge head,
An ink cartridge, wherein a liquid absorbing member is disposed on at least one surface outside the ink jet cartridge.   The ink cartridge according to claim 6, wherein the liquid absorbing member is a polymer absorber.   The ink cartridge according to claim 6, wherein the liquid absorbing member is polyvinyl alcohol, carboxymethyl cellulose, styrene acrylic acid, or polyvinyl pyrrolidone.   The liquid absorbent member is coated on the hydrophobic fiber side of a multilayer film in which the outer layer is made of hydrophilic fibers and the inner layer is made of hydrophobic fibers having a higher capillary force than the hydrophilic fibers. The ink cartridge described in 1.   An ink jet recording apparatus, wherein the liquid absorbing member of the ink cartridge according to claim 1 or 6 is disposed so as to face a surface on which the discharge port of the liquid discharge head is disposed. An ink jet recording apparatus, wherein a distance between a surface of the liquid absorbing member of the ink cartridge according to claim 1 and a surface on which the discharge ports of the liquid discharge head are arranged is 3 mm or less.

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